School to celebrate 30th anniversary

A local beauty college will celebrate a special anniversary this Saturday, with an open house from 4-6 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Todd G. Higdon

A local beauty college will celebrate a special anniversary this Saturday, with an open house from 4-6 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

"It is our 30th year being here as a school this month," said Scott Hill, manager/financial aid of Neosho Beauty College. "In 1983, mom (Erma) decided to quit just doing hair by herself, because that is what she did. She has been doing it for more than 50 years and the first part of that was in the shop. Then she decided that she wanted to teach, so that is where the school came about."

Neosho Beauty College, 116 N. Wood St., started out with five students in a 2,537-square foot building. As the new courses were added and the student body began to grow, the school grew as well. From 1985 through 2010, four expansions have created the space needed.

"We did a pretty good size expansion about three years ago and this last Christmas, we did a major renovation in front of the school, so they will be surprised," said Hill. "We wanted to kind of tie it all together."

During Saturday's come and go event, there will be some refreshments, the public and the former students can tour the school, and then at 6 p.m., City Limits will perform. Hill is one of the members.

"A lot of the students that have been throughout the years, haven't been here in a while," he said. "We were trying to get quite a few people, being 30 years, we have had about 1,200 students."

Hill noted that all four of their instructors are former students.

"I am sure that some of those students will reconnect with some students that, maybe, they went to school with and haven't seen in a while," he said.